Speaker:Joseph Lelyveld has been the foreign editor, managing editor, and executive editor of The New York Times. He was also a correspondent for The New York Times in London, New Delhi, Hong Kong, and Washington, D.C., and he served twice as a correspondent in South Africa. His book about South Africa, Move Your Shadow, received the Pulitzer Prize, and his most recent book is a memoir Omaha Blues: A Memory Loop.

Honorary Degrees: (Doctor of Humane Letters): Joseph Lelyveld (see above); Agnes Gund, president emerita, Museum of Modern Art; Jean Kennedy Smith, former ambassador to Ireland and founder, Very Special Arts.

… was one of 60 Americans selected from among thousands of international graduate-student applicants to attend the prestigious 2006 Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany.
… received the 2006 Minority Access Role Model Award from Minority Access, Inc. (with NIH support) at a national convention in Las Vegas.
… received an Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate award (funded by the National Science Foundation to support minority doctoral students in the sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
… completed her studies for a Ph.D. in Biology, which she will receive at the 2007 commencement ceremonies.

The Graduate Center is the doctorate-granting institution of the City University of New York (CUNY). An internationally recognized center for advanced studies and a national model for public doctoral education, the school offers more than thirty doctoral programs, as well as a number of master ’s programs. Many of its faculty members are among the world’s leading scholars in their respective fields, and its alumni hold major positions in industry and government, as well as in academia. The Graduate Center is also home to twenty-eight interdisciplinary research centers and institutes focused on areas of compelling social, civic, cultural, and scientific concerns. Located in a landmark Fifth Avenue building, the Graduate Center has become a vital part of New York City’s intellectual and cultural life with its extensive array of public lectures, exhibitions, concerts, and theatrical events. Further information on the Graduate Center and its programs can be found at www.gc.cuny.edu.